WTF is now World Taekwondo

In June 2017, the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) announced it has officially changed its name to World Taekwondo. Primarily, this was done as a marketing strategy to establish itself as the global leader of taekwondo. Secondarily, it was done to avoid the negative connotations of the acronym WTF as in "What The F***!" So now they will be known as just "What The!"

World Taekwondo is now truly global since it takes elements from various arts from around the world.
  • From Korean taekkyeon it takes its history (it no longer recognizes its Japanese shotokan influence),
  • from Irish Riverdance it takes the bouncing up and down on the feet while holding the arms down at the sides,
  • from French savate it takes the extensive use of kicking, and
  • from French foil fencing it takes the use of blunted weapons, limited targets, body protection, and electronic scoring. 


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